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The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady author Edith Holden’s 150th Birthday weekend on 24 to 26 September will be celebrated with Midland performances of a new musical and the release of a CD in her honour.

Friday 24 September will see the show performed at an indoor picnic at Wade Street Church in Lichfield; Sat 25th is a gala show at St Margaret’s Olton with The Bishop of Birmingham; Julian Knight MP, The Mayor of Solihull and members of the Holden Family and Sunday 26th September – her birthday - is an afternoon birthday party performance at St Laurence’s Northfield, Birmingham, when the Country Diary Live CD will be released.

Edith lived in Solihull and the writer and artist’s 1906 Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady was a worldwide phenomenon when published in 1977. It sold more than seven million copies and is still the Sunday Times’s longest-ever number one in their Best Sellers list - a staggering 65 weeks.

A CD -The Country Diary Live, was recorded at a sell-out performance at the official opening of The Olton Project Muslim Community and Education Centre in Solihull which was formerly the church where Edith’s family worshipped.

The musical brings Edith’s diary descriptions and paintings to life by illustrating them through folk songs that were being collected by Cecil Sharp and others at exactly the same time she was compiling her diary.

By interweaving her evocative descriptions with folk songs, Broomdasher restyle Edith as an Edwardian Eco-Warrior, recalling an era which was slipping away, as growing industrialisation changed the landscape, culture and society in Britain.